Going Up
by ShaniRona
Summary: One shot with potential for one extra part. Random Pepperony fluff and dialogue just for fun - set during IM1, slightly AU.


Based off of something I saw going around Facebook the other day...yes, something other than Area 51 memes have been circulating, LOL! This has potential for part two so let me know what you think. Potential for a part two, let me know your thoughts. Read and review, thanks!

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For literal months Pepper had pleaded with the heavens to bring Tony back to her. It had been months of him being gone, knowingly kidnapped, and there was nothing she could do from California. Not like anyone would let her go overseas even if she knew what she was doing, but she had begged for his return and patiently waited until finally, out of random, pure luck, Rhodey's squad found him.

And then she was hit with the bombshell. The information of what they did to him, the reason he was alive. He had showed her the arc that night when he finally had a car drop them both off at their residences, respectfully. His was first because she refused to leave him alone until he got back, and then the car would return her to her apartment. Before he got out, though, he asked for some privacy, which Happy gave willingly, and that's when he unbuttoned his shirt and revealed the glowing disc in his chest. That was one of the only times since Pepper had taken the job as his PA that she had been completely speechless.

Thankfully, Tony being Tony, it didn't come up again. At least not awkwardly. Sure, she helped him replace the thing a few days later, which was...interesting. And he'd been...different. Weird different. Sincere, which Tony Stark never was. And come to think of it...she hadn't seen him leave for a party or bring a girl home since his return. She figured that would be one of the first things he'd do, but she figured wrong.

She'd taken on a lot of the duties at Stark Industries in the meantime, or at least the meetings and small things he had on his agenda that didn't require Stane's company. She wasn't too fond of him, in all honesty, but he was Tony's go to, and she wasn't in a position to argue.

Well, that was until he decided he had to get something from the office and accompanied her on the drive in one morning, insisting Happy take them in so she didn't have to drive herself. She was just about to get into her car when the black town car showed up, an Tony was not taking no for an answer. That bit of character and his ego definitely didn't fade with his other habits.

It wasn't her choice, either, to have him shoot a dumb ass grin at the receptionist before following her at the heel into the elevator, chewing on his gum loudly with his mouth open. It annoyed her, but she could ignore it better than most things are the years she spent putting up with it so far.

"What's on the docket, Miss Potts?" he asked, trying to snoop over her shoulder as she brought out her planner when he followed her into the elevator.

"Well," she sighed as the doors closed and started their lift. "First you have a meeting with finance to go over the pay raises for accounting, and then-"

"Twelve percent, across the board. Next?"

"-you have a conference call with China about-"

"Take a message," he suggested, still chewing his gum way too loudly.

"-those upgrades you want to make to...twelve percent?!" she asked, stunned by that figure. "Tony, that's...did you do the math before you chose that number?!"

He only shrugged her off. "I'm rich, who cares?"

"Your investors and your shareholders," Pepper shot back, staring at him as he stood facing forward, ignoring her behind his dark tinted glasses, his hands clasped in front of his fitted suit. "Who aren't really that happy with you right now to begin with," she added, knowing most of his support was still upset about the whole no weapons ordeal.

"It's called being a good boss."

"You're hardly even here!" she gasped, slightly annoyed; after all, she had been fronting most of the office work. "Half of them don't even believe you're still alive!"

"Well, I'm proving them all wrong today, aren't I?" he challenged.

And that's when it happened. A power outage. Great.

The elevator came to a halting stop and Pepper grabbed the side railing on the elevator wall for support so she didn't crumble to the floor. Of course, on the day she wore four inch heels to the office... Tony didn't seem to react as badly, but this probably wasn't the worst thing he had been through. He stumbled forward a little bit, but caught his footing.

The lights flickered on the ceiling, and then it shut down completely, and suddenly Pepper found herself fumbling to rearrange the things in her hands so she could grab for her phone in her blazer pocket. It didn't matter, though - even connected to the Stark servers, there was no service in the stalled cabin.

"Oh come on," she hissed under her breath, tapping the screen in hopes of bumping something into obtaining reception.

But Tony was being his usual cocky genius and was already connecting to Jarvis, which only he had access to on the go.

"J, reroute all power to the backup generators until we fix the power lines," he requested.

"Of course, sir," his AI approved, and then a moment passed before the voice followed up. "Estimated time of restoration: nine twenty three, AM."

"That's almost a half hour from now!" Pepper realized out loud, and Tony quirked his eyebrow, replying to his system for her.

"Can we speed that up at all?"

"Trying to, sir," Jarvis responded with an apology heavy on his tone. "It seems the generator's coding for the building was ruptured during the test trials you ran on the arc reactor last week."

"Of course it was..." Pepper muttered under her breath.

Stark only glared at her, then proceeded to ignore her, tapping on his phone, probably trying to code it himself. "Just...figure it out," he instructed his system anyway.

And then it was silent, for at least ten minutes, but she welcomed the silence. She was too busy rearranging the scheduled in her hands to take note on what Tony was doing.

That was until he decided to dramatically sink to the floor and lean back. He started chewing loudly on his gum again and his hand started drumming patterns into the mirrored wall, his tongue making clicking noises to match, and Pepper knew he was doing it without realizing it, but it was still annoying. She tried her hardest to tune it out, but it went on and on and on because he couldn't do anything else with his hands, she finally growled out in frustration, tossing her pen at him blindly.

"What the hell was that?!" he snapped, flinching as it whirled past his nose and pinged against the metal wall before falling to the floor between his outstretched legs. "Are you insane?"

"You're _driving me_ insane!" Pepper exhaled, then snapped her planner shut and knelt down to set her things on the floor, but she, herself, refused to sit like Stark was.

Instead, she leaned against the wall and folded her arms over her chest, trying to ignore the feeling of her heels swelling over those God damned heels she was cursing herself for earlier. Sitting on the floor would mean stooping to Tony's level, and right now, she was too annoyed with him for being such a puppy dog, and, in all honesty, she was still a little worked up from that awkward exchange whens he had helped with that thing in his chest.

"Why are you even here?" she asked next, realizing he never fully explained. "If you're not going to attend the meetings, you don't need to-"

"I have a dinner later," he countered, lifting that damn eyebrow again and shooting his dark brown gaze her way, which made her blush and clear her throat before shifting uncomfortably on her feet.

Of course he would - it wasn't on the planner, so obviously it wasn't Stark Industries related. And it wasn't on the schedule on his server, so that meant it was personal. And with Tony Stark, personal meant...

"Right," Pepper muttered under her breath, feeling stupid because part of her was still hoping he had meant what he said about there being no one but her. "I'm not kicking her out in the morning, I have plans."

"Plans?" he questioned, and now the tables were turned. "Since when?"

"Since...two weeks ago, when my cousin asked me to help her pick flowers for her friend's wedding."

"Huh."

"What?"

"Nothing," he lied, dropping his gaze and picking up the pen before tossing it across the stalled cabin, seeing if it would bounce off the wall opposite him and relay back; it didn't, it just dropped to the floor and he glared at it as though it could understand his resentment. "I thought your family wasn't around anymore."

Pepper blinked, not knowing how to respond for a moment. She wasn't sure if he was annoyed with himself for assuming that or if he was upset that she had people to go to while he didn't.

"My mom and I don't talk, and my dad left when I was little," she answered slowly, shifting on her feet again to relieve some of the pressure.

"_My_ mom and dad ran off the road and left me with no one," Tony replied, as though to one up her, then sighed. "I...didn't know you still had people in California. You've never mentioned them before."

"You've never asked."

Touche, he thought, biting his lip as his eyes widened briefly in silent agreement.

"Sorry," he mumbled, mood plummeting suddenly. "Guess I was too busy being tortured in a cave recently."

That was really all he had to do to make Pepper loosen up. Maybe he knew it, maybe he didn't, but she let her arms fall to her sides and she sighed, shifting again.

"Just sit, it'll be a while still," Tony suggested.

"What?"

"You've switched your weight to the other foot three times now," he observed, chuckling to himself slightly as he tapped in his knee and closed his eyes, leaning his head back against the wall. "So sit, or take off the heels, either way it solves your problem."

"That's unprofessional," she argued, but her mind was begging her to do as he said.

"We're in an elevator, alone, with no power, Miss Potts," he huffed. "Anything goes."

Her heart skipped a beat, worried by that, and she was quick to snap back as her walls reset. "Not quite 'anything'."

To her surprise, Tony didn't bother answering, and there were several agonizing moments where she suffered and tried to prove him wrong...until she finally caved and let her feet rest, carefully, yet awkwardly, shuffling down and tucking her skirt under her knees. She watched him, resting his head still, and she wasn't sure if maybe he'd nodded off, but for the first time in a quite a few days, he looked like he was at peace. He looked calmed, quite gentle...not the cocky, probably made up of mostly caffeine version of him she'd known even before he was abducted.

And then it dawned on her, that maybe it wasn't that he was content, but that he was in pain, for more than just his parental issues.

"Does it hurt?" she asked gently, and that's when he finally lifted his head, looking at her in question.

"No," he lied, and she could tell, so she gave him a scolding look that resulted in him pushing up into a sitting position to face her. "Sometimes. Not as often as before."

"Maybe you're getting used to it," she offered.

"Or numb to pain."

Pepper only frowned, not sure how to answer that. She didn't want him to be hurting, but she didn't want him to be _dead _either.

"Don't get soft on me, Potts," Stark warned, mischief on his voice, and when she looked up from her hands to her boss, his eyes mimicked just the same.

"I feel like I should think about it more," Pepper admitted, but Tony was quick to interject.

"Don't think about it more."

"There's this...this foreign thing, this generator keeping you alive, and-"

"Don't think about it at all, actually."

"-it's only been a few weeks and it feels so normal, like you've been back for ages, like-"

"Do you _want_ to think about it?" he asked, now confused and not hearing her.

"-nothing's...different about you..." she finally trailed off, realizing how awful that sounded...and that he wasn't listening.

Oh, but he caught that part.

"Thanks, I already knew I wasn't normal, but-"

"I didn't mean that that way!" Pepper quickly followed up, now extremely embarrassed by anything and everything she said; God, why was it so awkward to talk to her boss now?!

"-that hits home."

"You still have a heart, you're still human," she tried to tease, and thankfully it worked for a moment because his lips tugged up and he showed his white teeth for just the smallest of seconds.

But then he was back to his phone, deciding to end that discussion before it got weirder, and he checked with his AI on the status of power restoration.

"Jarvis, got somethin for me yet?"

Pepper waited as the AI alerted him it shouldn't be too much longer, and as they bickered, she suddenly realized how open Tony was being now that they were alone with no escape, no way out. Maybe if she told him how she really felt about the kidnapping... Not that it was a good thing, but that it _changed_ him, maybe for the better. Maybe he'd listen, take her advice, grow up a little...

"Wear the blue shirt, the one on the front of the rack next to your jogging gear," she finally spoke in a hush once he ended his argument with Jarvis.

"Huh?"

"For your 'meeting'," she murmured awkwardly, hating the idea of him bringing women home again; it was so nice without that aspect of his life. "You look nice in blue."

"I have jogging gear?" he asked instead, ignoring that last bit. "When the hell did I ever go jogging?"

"Once, after a couple shots of tequila and a challenge from Rhodey," she reminded him, speaking about a party years ago which resulted in a failed race on the beach. "I told you I can sell it, auction it off for charity, even, but you insist on keeping it for next time."

"I _will _beat my feathered friend" he vowed, but Pepper only laughed. "What?"

"Winged," she corrected. "Winged, since he's an airman."

"Feathers come on wings."

"I'll have to remember to get you a book on avian anatomy for your birthday next year," she teased.

"Yeah, hopefully my date tonight isn't a bird expert," he agreed.

Well, that killed her brief moment where she forgot how annoyed she always was with him. But she didn't let it show...at least she hoped.

Instead, she tried to make her inquiry sound work related still. "Does this 'date' have a name so I can inform Jarvis not to let her alter the security protocol?"

Tony held a straight face, though, and she knew she was caught.

"You don't know her."

"Ah, so it's a her," Pepper tried to joke.

"Hey, just cause I experimented in college..." Tony defended himself.

Shaking her head, Pepper exhaled slowly and ignored the comment. "Does she, uh...what about the arc?"

"Does she know about the arc?" Tony asked, and she nodded. "Uh, didn't think that one through yet. Probably just gonna stick with a shirt."

"That might be a good idea," Pepper agreed quietly, glancing down again and fidgeting with the end of her skirt. "Just for publicity, you know..."

"And for your peace of mind," he countered, that playfulness back to his eyes when she snapped her attention back up, almost offended.

"_My_ peace of mind?! What does this have to do with me?!"

"You said you don't want to, you know-" Tony began, arms outstretched as he leaned forward to counter her sudden aggression towards him.

"What, take out the trash again?" Pepper finished for him, and he shrugged, stupidly agreeing as though caught with his hand in the cookie jar. "It _is_ getting tiring."

"That's what they tell me," he grinned dumbly, and that resulted in her gasping and shoving him slightly now that he'd inched his way close enough to her that she could lean over and smack him. "Ow, hey, watch it!"

"Oh my God!" she whispered, all playfulness suddenly exiting her body as she realized she had tapped his chest, which probably irritated the spot near the arc. "I'm so sorry, I forgot, and-"

"Now it hurts," he tossed back, talking over her to purposely make her feel bad as he fake clenched the middle of his torso.

It only made Pepper panic, because she didn't realize he was playing her. "Are you okay?!"

"Yeah," he grunted, trying to sound like he was in pain, and that's when both of her hands shot forward and she shifted her weight forward before hesitating, thinking about how it would be safe to touch him. "Just...might die, or, you know, you could've set off the electro magnetic field inside the core, so-"

"What?!" she yelped, forgetting to breathe.

But Tony couldn't be _that_ mean, so he dropped the act and laughed again. "Okay, maybe not that bad, but it _is_ a little sore still he admitted as he carefully unbuttoned the top few buttons of his dress shirt underneath and let that metal object that Pepper both loved and hated free.

He was right, it was a little red around the edges still, and it was probably irritated by the foreign matter. She had no idea how sterile his...surgery, implant, whatever...was while he was in captivity, and who knows if cleaning it out once he returned had done any good.

"It's just...adjusting," he showed her, trying to calm her down. "I'll be fine."

"But..." she protested, but that's all she could find words for, feeling guilty about the whole situation, even if he had exaggerated specifically to scare her.

Pepper's eyes danced across the arc and the red tinged sides outside of it where his skin hadn't quite adapted, and she hated the idea of what he went through. She wanted him to mature a little, but not this way.

"I'm okay," he assured her again, gentle and soft, and she looked up at him, her brow pressed together with concern.

Why was he trying to comfort her? He was the one in pain.

Still, Pepper swallowed awkwardly as she tried to find her answers in his dark eyes. That's about the same time she realized how close they were sitting, once on completely opposite ends of the elevator, and now, about twenty minutes later, almost nose to nose.

Tony wasn't doing much better, that was apparent. She watched as he flickered his eyes down; they gazed over her nose and her lips before returning to hers briefly. He waited, but she didn't back off, because she was frozen, confused and that irregular heart beat controlling her again. Every time he did something like this, that damn comment when she'd helped him replace this thing in his chest got to her. He didn't have anyone else but her.

She could've swore he leaned in, trying to steal a kiss, or something of the sort, and her heart stopped as she anticipated it, too anxious to decide if she wanted to welcome it or tell him he needed to stop. However, that was also the same moment the lights powered back on, and the sound of the systems returning interrupted her frazzled thoughts.

But the moment faded quickly, and she looked up at the ceiling right before the elevator jolted back into movement and returned them on their way up to their correct floors. She'd gather her things, stand, and brush this off like it never happened. And then she'd go to his meetings, go to his house and prepare a security protocol for Jarvis for the morning, and then forget all about Tony Stark for the next day while she escaped north of the city to see her cousin.

The only downside? When it reached her floor, she couldn't forget about it, and had to force a quaint, fake as hell smile at her boss before exiting, pulling her composure back together on the spot.

Surely it was awkward for him too, right? Right. She had a meeting to go to and important shareholder calls to take, and besides...Tony Stark had a 'date' to worry about, not his PA.


End file.
